Vivaldi's vocal music

Started by Elgarian, June 15, 2009, 12:09:16 PM

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Wanderer

#60
Quote from: DarkAngel on August 25, 2009, 04:16:14 AM
Wanderer
it is a shame your copy does not have the background DVD, some clips have made it to youtube.
Watch this video to see Vivaldi come to life and enjoy seeing a vocalist take flight and go where eagles dare

Thanks for that.  8)


DarkAngel

#61
Sonia Prina shows her mettle with a daring short aria performance from Vivaldi's Orlando Finto Pazzo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2XqmH44jYU&feature=related

She appears on many Naive label Vivaldi performances, the young new turks of Baroque opera shaking things up!  :D

Many other Sonia Prina videos from same recital avialable from youtube in "related videos" side panel........
High quality sound from 4/09 recital

DarkAngel

#62
Looks like the super expensive import version of Savall/Alia Vox Farnace is now re-issued on Naive label:



It will soon be mine..............but I will wait just a bit longer for price to drift lower as more sellers list it on Amazon


Anne

Wendell, thanks for answering coopmv's question.  I saw it just now for the first time.

Coopmv

Quote from: Anne on August 29, 2009, 07:10:21 AM
Wendell, thanks for answering coopmv's question.  I saw it just now for the first time.

Anne, we were both waiting for the answer to the same question.  I made an educated guess since Claudio Scimone recorded a number of Handel's operas with Marilyn Horne in the 80's.

DarkAngel

#65
Compare three versions of Vivaldi aria Sorge l'irato nembo

The modern younger baroque singers and conductors have really raised the bar for Vivaldi baroque performance from 20 years ago,
much faster more dramatic and freer use of ornamentation, Horne almost seems to be singing a different song by comparison

Jaroussky 2009 (counter tenor, a hint of what the great castrati of Vivaldi's time may have sounded like)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tx7c_BwtiZg

Horne 1991
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ZopvAHy4c4&feature=related

Sonia Prina 2009
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoMx0KhmusU

Coopmv

Quote from: DarkAngel on August 29, 2009, 03:32:11 PM

The modern younger baroque singers and conductors have really raised the bar for Vivaldi baroque performance from 20 years ago,
much faster more dramatic and freer use of ornamentation, Horne almost seems to be singing a different song by comparison


Faster singing does not necessarily mean better performance.  If that had been the case, most New Yorkers would have spoken the best English.

DarkAngel

Quote from: Coopmv on August 29, 2009, 04:36:47 PM
 

Faster singing does not necessarily mean better performance.  If that had been the case, most New Yorkers would have spoken the best English.

There is far more going on with modern Vivaldi besides faster tempos...........

do you not hear the more colorful emotional animated delivery style, the more agile clearer delivery of notes, the more inventive freer use of ornamentation?

Coopmv

Quote from: DarkAngel on August 29, 2009, 04:54:49 PM
There is far more going on with modern Vivaldi besides faster tempos...........

do you not hear the more colorful emotional animated delivery style, the more agile clearer delivery of notes, the more inventive freer use of ornamentation?

I do.  But I just finished listening to the following St Matthew Passion, which was recorded in 1989.  The recording stacks up against any of the more recent recordings quite well IMO. 


DarkAngel

Coop
I think you are right that Bach & Handel from the 1980s hold up much better to the newest works because they were always very
popular and have a long track record of recordings.

The Vivaldi operas were a rarity in the 1980s and prior and no one was really sure how to sing or play them.
Now they have become very popular with new operas debuting all the time, the style championed by new young generation on Naive, Opus 111, Virgin, Archiv labels etc is much bolder and more dramatic than was previuosly practiced by the few recording available

Coopmv

Quote from: DarkAngel on August 29, 2009, 06:07:54 PM
Coop
I think you are right that Bach & Handel from the 1980s hold up much better to the newest works because they were always very
popular and have a long track record of recordings.

The Vivaldi operas were a rarity in the 1980s and prior and no one was really sure how to sing or play them.
Now they have become very popular with new operas debuting all the time, the style championed by new young generation on Naive, Opus 111, Virgin, Archiv labels etc is much bolder and more dramatic than was previuosly practiced by the few recording available

I think Vivaldi's works generally have much faster tempos compared with works by Bach or Handel.  You need to look no further than the first movement of "Spring" from Le Quattro Stagioni.  I have quite a few Vivaldi's sacred works recorded in the 70's and 80's and their tempos were measurably faster than comparable sacred works by Bach or Handel.  Perhaps the different tempos can be explained by their respective backgrounds and national music styles: Vivaldi was both Italian and Roman Catholic while Bach and Handel were clearly much influenced by their northern European and Protestant backgrounds.  I have not yet have the chance to listen to the latest Vivaldi's choral/vocal recordings and therefore cannot comment ...

Anne

Quote from: Coopmv on August 29, 2009, 02:28:46 PM


Anne, we were both waiting for the answer to the same question.  I made an educated guess since Claudio Scimone recorded a number of Handel's operas with Marilyn Horne in the 80's.

You're right.  We were although I could have gone downstairs and retrieved the video.
I had stuck my toe in the water for this kind of music quite a while ago but decided to listen to more romantic music instead.  I'm giving this another try.

Elgarian

#72


http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/al.asp?al=CDA67361/2&f=vivaldi

This turned up last week in Hyperion's Bottom Ten sale and I snapped it up. It's a delight. The performances are lovely (with Carolyn Sampson you can't go wrong, and the tonal qualities of the other singers seem to complement each other beautifully), and (in retrospect) I'd have been glad to have it at full price, let alone as a less than half-price bargain. But the thing I want to point up especially (apart from the general excellence of the set) is the finale of La Festa Festeggiante, which you can sample at the above link: CD2 track 8. There's something about this that is irresistibly life-affirming, and I simply can't listen to it without smiling. There's a lightness, spirit-lifting character to it that alone is worth the price of the 2 CD set. Curiously the words are very formulaic, celebrating a royal wedding - but the formality of the words is belied by the music and the singing.

One of my happiest Vivaldi purchases.

DarkAngel

Elgarian
Nice find............I picked up the Naive/Opus111 version of that work last year and enjoy it, but seems to be hard to get now



BTW I think I am caught up and have every Vivaldi opera released on Naive label  :)

Coopmv

Elgarian,  So this is a great set in your opinion?  Presto Classic is having a great sale on the set.  I just received the Bach Complete Organ Works by Ton Koopman from Presto ...


The new erato

#75
Quote from: Coopmv on December 11, 2009, 06:38:04 PM
Elgarian,  So this is a great set in your opinion?  Presto Classic is having a great sale on the set.  I just received the Bach Complete Organ Works by Ton Koopman from Presto ...


I've been snatching up these discs singly in Hyperion's halfprice sale at £5.60  per issue post-free, and now have 5.... ;D

Not really interested in volume 6 (a double) as it is Judita Triumphans which I already have on Naive.

Elgarian

#76
Quote from: Coopmv on December 11, 2009, 06:38:04 PM
Elgarian,  So this is a great set in your opinion?



That was one of the best purchases I made in the last year. It was something of a revelation, in fact. I remember at the time Que questioned the combination of Vivaldi and the British choral tradition as manifested through King's Consort on Hyperion; and there's no doubt that listening to these recordings is not quite the same kind of experience as listening, say, to those often wild, windswept performances one hears on the Naive sets. But (perhaps because of my inexperience) I don't share Que's reservations. Obviously I'm speaking in general terms, but I feel that the Naive wildness is replaced by a lightness of touch, a delicacy, that I find entirely delightful. Vivaldi is dancing through the air instead of forcing his way through it with a battering ram. I enjoy both approaches, but if I had to give all my Vivaldi away, it's the Hyperion set that I'd be most reluctant to part with.

Coopmv

Quote from: Elgarian on December 12, 2009, 12:28:42 AM
That was one of the best purchases I made in the last year. It was something of a revelation, in fact. I remember at the time Que questioned the combination of Vivaldi and the British choral tradition as manifested through King's Consort on Hyperion; and there's no doubt that listening to these recordings is not quite the same kind of experience as listening, say, to those often wild, windswept performances one hears on the Naive sets. But (perhaps because of my inexperience) I don't share Que's reservations. Obviously I'm speaking in general terms, but I feel that the Naive wildness is replaced by a lightness of touch, a delicacy, that I find entirely delightful. Vivaldi is dancing through the air instead of forcing his way through it with a battering ram. I enjoy both approaches, but if I had to give all my Vivaldi away, it's the Hyperion set that I'd be most reluctant to part with.

IMO, there are still two schools of thoughts when it comes to performance of classical music.  I think the so-called national interpretation theory is still valid, i.e. I have rarely heard of any non-English ensembles that can do Handel oratorios right, not even the Germans.  Perhaps that was how Q thought about the King's Consort playing Vivaldi Sacred Works.  I can get the set for a little over $6 USD at Presto and will likely take the leap since most of my Vivaldi's sacred works are on LP by Michel Corboz and Vitorio Negri - the old school interpretation.

Elgarian

Quote from: Coopmv on December 12, 2009, 05:50:46 AM
I can get the set for a little over $6 USD at Presto

Six dollars? They must be flying out so fast that they'll clog up the postal system. (I presume that's a typo, Coop?)

There are lots of samples at the Hyperion website, if you want a taster.

Coopmv

Quote from: Elgarian on December 12, 2009, 09:05:22 AM
Six dollars? They must be flying out so fast that they'll clog up the postal system. (I presume that's a typo, Coop?)

There are lots of samples at the Hyperion website, if you want a taster.

It is actually selling the box set and it averages out to a little over $6 per CD.  I am not totally committed to getting the set yet.  But I am definitely getting the Chopin set and the Harnoncourt Mozart's Sacred Works.  I generally only buy recordings by artists I have a certain comfort level.  While I have no hesitation buying Handel oratorios by the King's Consort, like I did last summer, Vivaldi is quite different IMO ...